ClockLab – Automation against Frustration

While working on the Lease A Bike platform, one requirement was clear from the start: we needed a Git/project management tool that could run off-cloud and provide fully transparent time tracking. That’s why we chose GitLab for code and project management, and Clockify for tracking time. It looked great on paper—until two major problems arose quickly:

1. There was no easy way to sync estimated and tracked time between the tools.

2. Not everyone in GitLab should see detailed Clockify data — and not everyone in Clockify needed a full GitLab license just to log time.

Especially with GitLab Bronze, even basic read-only access came at a cost. We needed something in between.

So, I developed a connector between Clockify and GitLab—and named it ClockLab! It pushed time entries from Clockify into GitLab issues, matched them to estimates, and kept everything in sync. Running quietly in the background, it saved us hours every day.

However, there was one catch: What if someone missed a time entry or added it to the wrong issue? That’s not something you can fix a week later. You forget what you did, and planning gets disrupted.

To tackle this, I extended ClockLab to send real-time Slack messages to team members. If something looked off, the person got a friendly ping—while it was still fresh. Simple. Effective. Quietly useful.

A Simple Tool that Kept Growing

ClockLab started as a quick fix, but like many useful tools, it didn't stay small. I automated all the tasks that were a pain. Over time, I added features that we had been doing manually for far too long:

• Slack integration to notify teams when issues exceeded estimates or time entries didn't match the issue description.

• Priority-based issue sorting to keep the backlog clean and focused.

• Merge Request validation to prevent changes with leftover debugging code.

• Automatic invoicing via LexOffice to streamline billing.

• A help desk for externals to report bugs or request features.

• Advanced QA with predefined test cases and Loom video recording.

• …and other enhancements that made life just a little easier.

Marvin quickly became an essential part of the team, saving us countless hours of work each day. And we didn't even charge the client for it. We just didn’t want to go insane doing the same things repeatedly.

In later projects, I switched to GitHub—GitLab didn’t always feel like a best fit. So, I added GitHub support. At ENIQO, I integrated Toggl since their team had relied on it for years. As time went on, the software became increasingly complex.

Status Quo

ClockLab began as a Laravel project, featuring numerous queues and direct integrations. While I would have loved to open-source it, my choice to build it on Laravel Nova unfortunately made that impossible. I still rely on ClockLab daily for time tracking and invoicing, even though I no longer sync across tools.

Currently, the main challenge with ClockLab is its codebase: it has grown too extensive to maintain effectively, with many features no longer in use. That’s why I follow the saying: 'If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.'

For all new automations—and I automate a lot—I now utilize n8n to create a more modular structure and streamline processes even further.

Interested in leveraging automation and AI in your projects? Reach out—I'd love to discuss how we can work together!